"On the Threshold of the Top": Pages in Positions 4–20
"On the threshold of the top" is what PromoPilot calls pages that are already ranked approximately from 4th to 20th positions. In English-speaking SEO, they are referred to as striking distance: they have passed Google's selection, are shown to users, and gather impressions, but they are just a little short of the position where clicks begin.
Why These Positions
A page in 12th place is already recognized as relevant: Google shows it to users. It lacks not meaning, but weight — the authority that external links provide. A page from the third hundred looks different: the problem is almost always in the content or structure itself, and links will not solve it.
The difference in return is enormous because click-through rates drop very quickly as you go down:
| Transition | Clicks (per 1000 impressions) | Now | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 → 10 | ≈9 | ≈25 | Noticeable, but small increase |
| 10 → 5 | ≈25 | ≈61 | Clicks roughly double |
| 8 → 3 | ≈34 | ≈110 | Most profitable scenario |
| 45 → 30 | ≈2 | ≈5 | Work done, almost no traffic |
How the Platform Finds Such Pages
Radar reads your Google Search Console and analyzes all the pages on the site that have real search demand. It selects those that are close enough to the top for links to have an effect, and discards those that are hopelessly far away or already at the very top — there is almost nowhere to grow. Pages closer to the top ten are prioritized: they have a shorter path and a higher likelihood of quick movement.
For each found page, Radar calculates a realistic target position and potential for additional clicks, as well as selects anchors from the queries for which the page is already ranked.
Where to See This in the Dashboard
- Project Card. The badge "On the Threshold of the Top: N" is clickable and opens a list of specific pages with their positions.
- Pulse Column. For a page that has not yet had launches and is in positions 4–20, a badge "To Top-10" or "To Top-3" appears with the distance to the target.
- Radar. The main list of "Quick Wins" with the potential of each page and the ability to add it to the project with one click.
- Email "Found N New Pages on the Threshold of the Top". Arrives when new such pages appear in Search Console that were not present last time. The same list is not sent again.
What to Do with Them
- Check that the page is indeed commercially useful: traffic to a service page will not pay off.
- Add it to the project directly from Radar — along with the recommended anchor.
- Launch a cascade. For pages on the threshold of the top, a moderate volume is usually sufficient: they do not need to catch up from scratch.
- After 30–90 days, check the result in the "Search Result" block in the launch report — it shows what was at the start and what has changed.
Common Mistakes
- Taking everything from the list. Better to have a few pages with real demand than twenty with three impressions a month.
- Counting the forecast as a promise. This is an estimate based on the click-through curve; competition and seasonality change it.
- Pushing a page that competes with another page of your own. First, deal with cannibalization — otherwise, the budget will be spread between two addresses.